when we were young
by bihenry
Summary: when they show up on saturday afternoon with one combined present — a build your own computer kit, something charlotte had been talking about every since she saw it in a window a few months back — she's sure that she'll be hanging around these two for a lot longer. / the ot3 origin fic we deserve.


i've been wanting an ot3 origin story since the beginning of the show. and from what i can tell we aren't getting it for a while so i guess i gotta do everything my dang self. so here it is, mostly for my own self indulgence. i'm going to keep it real with y'all..i'm not the best at writing little kids. so that may be why they're kinda ooc. and i changed things about charlotte's fam because i can't be bothered to go and find out the real, accurate stuff. it's not like it matters that much in the long run. okay? okay. title and lyrics below are to _when we were young_ by **the wild wild.**

* * *

do you remember when we were young? life was so simple, we just had fun.  
do you remember when we were small and everything around us was so much taller?

do you remember when we were kids?  
and all that we wanted was to go outside with our friends.

* * *

the tall brick building is daunting. she's **_charlotte_** , she's not supposed to be scared of anything.

she'd seen scary movies thanks in part to her older cousins, she's been up on crazy high water slides during summer camp trips when all the other kids were too afraid of heights to get past the first set of stairs and yet the thought of walking into a building where she doesn't know anyone besides that one kid who still rides their bike with training wheels at the age of ten? it's enough to make her grip just a little bit tighter onto her mothers hand.

"it'll be fine, honey," her mothers voice is reassuring but lacks something almost like _empathy._ her parents aren't the most involved — they're scientists after all, busier than ever — but they still made time to drop her off for her first day of school. she hadn't gone to preschool or kindergarten (she'd tested out of them, could've even skipped first grade if she wanted but figured it was a good place to start with her peers).

she can only nod in response.

* * *

the first thing she notices about the room (besides the overtly happy teacher..is that an act or is she just overloaded on coffee?) is that it's filled with colorful posters and name tags on the table. hers in the far left corner, near the windows and closest view to the playground.

her books are being neatly stacked on the table when a blonde kid nearly trips over his own feet and knocks himself into the table. he looks like he just ran a marathon, all heavy breathing and sweaty hairline. charlotte just raises her eyebrows at him; what else is she supposed to do? according to the place he sits at, on the other side of her, his name is henry.

henry is..a mess, by any standard of the word for a seven year old. he's not even wearing matching socks! it was slightly endearing, if she was honest with herself. he was almost like a puppy who'd gotten out of his leash and had to investigate everything. he shakes her hand with what charlotte imagines is the extent of his manners before turning back to his own side of the table and just about dumped everything onto it. the sound nearly startled her out of her own seat, squinted eyes in confusion to the grin on his face once he realized she was looking at him.

it was going to be a long year.

* * *

the next one is more of weirdo than henry seems to be.

okay, he's not _weird._ he's just..carrying everything in a bucket. it wasn't weird. it was just abnormal. ( **A-B-N-O-R-M-A-L.** her spelling sheets seemed to be coming in handy).

his names jasper and apparently, henry already knew him. if the way the kid's face lit up like it was suddenly christmas morning and he got the exact toy he wanted. it's not surprising that they chatter for a bit until the teacher starts class, introducing herself. then they all sit in a circle on the carpet and do the same thing he cousins tell her: go around, say your name & favorite thing. (hers: books. henrys: superheroes. jaspers: buckets. the last one didn't come as a shock.) it was mildly boring for charlotte, at least, until they were let loose to color on the name tags that'd been placed on their table.

somehow, it's not surprising that she was the only one out of the three to keep things inside the line. henry calls her miss perfect, jasper just gives her a confused look. she just sighs and leans back, watching her tablemates color their hearts out wherever they pleased.

* * *

they're on the playground a few months into the new year.

apparently, the other kids in the class didn't want to hear about the work her parents were doing. the fantastic, scientific, groundbreaking (their words) work in their labs. they found it **BORING** (how?) and often just walked off to play on the monkey bars.

the only ones who didn't seem too terribly bored were her tablemates. henry was always just nodding along while he ate his lunch and jasper asked question. many of which she didn't have the answers to, but it was nice to have someone listen.

charlotte loves her parents. she wanted to be just like them.

maybe, just maybe, the boys weren't so bad at all.

* * *

it only comes as a little surprise when charlotte is the other person henry wants in the nurses office with him. jasper leads the way to where henry was laying on the hard makeshift bed in the back of the office. he'd fallen off the monkey bars, possibly breaking his wrist in the process.

"y'gotta be there to tell me to never do that again next time." his eyes rival those of a kicked puppy. he wasn't crying anymore, but charlotte felt her heart shatter just a little.

to be fair, she had warned him days prior that those things were entirely dangerous. she'd seen one of the older kids get hurt on them, and knew that one of these days, one of the boys would too. it was only a matter of time.

her hand rests on his shoulder. "but are you gonna listen to me when i say it?" eyebrows were raised; with henry, you could never really tell what he was going to do. the kid was in a league of his own.

"you know he won't." jasper pipes up from the other side of the table.

charlotte cracks a smile. she'd known henry for the lesser half of a school year, yet knew that he wouldn't ever listen to a word she said.

* * *

the only people she wants at her birthday party are her tablemates. (friends?)

her parents insist she invite more, and so charlotte pretends to hand out the invitations at school when instead she just saves two and leaves them on table for the boys to find once they get to class.

jasper arrives first, and after he reads the invite (with a little bit of her help) and gives her the biggest grin she's ever seen on his face. it's april, schools almost over for the year and she swears this kid is like a ray of sunshine humanified.

"but what do you want? i have like, ten dollars, i can get you something really cool!" that's what she hears as he continues to sprout different questions all at once and when henry arrives and reads the other invitation, his own questions join in the confusion until the teacher has to scold them.

when they show up on saturday afternoon with one combined present — a build your own computer kit, something charlotte had been talking about every since she saw it in a window a few months back — she's sure that she'll be hanging around these two for a lot longer.


End file.
